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In a victory for common sense and even basic justice, it appears that eBay have finally knocked the cheeky Geordie scam artist, Newcastleno9 off their system.

Yesterday I received a message that the claim against him had been found on my behalf, although eBay continue to dance around the head of a pin, declining to comment one way or the other whether his actions were considered “unlawful” or not, “Please note that our decision to remove the feedback does not constitute a finding by us that the identified content is defamatory or otherwise unlawful”.

Still, he’s off the air, for now at least and I’m still £300 the poorer but at least there’s less chance of him doing the same to someone else. However, like the Terminator, I have a feeling he’ll be back with a new identity. After all, there’s the saying, “one can’t keep a good man down”, or was that a good scam?

One tip though, from experience. Never, never believe all you read in someone's eBay feedback and equally, if the seller isn't using Paypal, escrow or a credit card for items of value, don't bother with the purchase. It's not worth the risk or the experience of trying to get your money back through a commercial or legal system that doesn't really offer much help or justice either.

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